Continuous Provision For Jigsaw Puzzles, Games And Threading

[Guest terrydoo73]

In our wonderful resources section here on the Forum we have some great downloadable sheets for continuous provision. Unfortunately the jigsaw puzzle section is not included as a separate section - I know it is really construction but ...

 

Our Development Officer has commented on what we have within our jigsaw puzzles and wants to come back and review this along with all our other areas for when we start in September. I am trying to compile a series of these continuous provision sheets to show that we have thought about each area carefully and what is available to our children.

 

At present we are working on our nursery puzzle rhymes in conjunction with what the children are learning so we have 2 sets - Humpty Dumpty, Hickory Dickory Dock and there are 2, 4 and 6 pieces in each so we have 2 pieces of the mouse who ran up the clock, then 4 of the clock itself and 6 of the mouse running down the clock - hopefully you understand what I mean! I have also got a couple of 4 piece jigsaws based around the idea of a child playing. We do have peg puzzles - one very simple one with shapes fitting easily while another peg puzzle is a bit more difficult.

 

In the same area we have a peg board and threading activity which are both fairly easy to work out. I think the criticism was based around the fact that we have too many themed jigsaws and not enough random selection jigsaws!

[Fredbear]

Hi it maybe in her opinion that there are too much linked to a theme within your provision.

Do you have any with shapes, floor puzzles, or with more pieces to show a variation, if not perhaps with all the lovely pennies you are going to make at your fete/ funday you could explore getting some.

Charity shops sometimes or boot sales are good for this too.

Just a thought does she saying anything nice about what you are doing to give you more confidence, it always appears from your posts that there's alot of criticism, which inturn can lead to self-doubt.

[Guest]

If I am putting out jigsaws I tend to put out an assortment of jigsaws that are random themes but vary a great deal in difficulty.

 

Also, when they are put away there's a mixture (amount of pieces wise) in whatever drawer a child might access for themselves, again offering differentiation.

 

Most of our children enjoy jigsaws and have had them at home so some of the more basic puzzles do not challenge them in any way.

 

I am not sure what your development officer was trying to say but maybe it was about differentitation?

 

Get her to explain to you, help you undestand what she feels is good practice! The see if you agree with her!!

[Inge]

Do wonder if from what you describe if there is not enough to give a real challenge to these children and you need more variety both in content as well as difficulty.

 

we never used puzzles to a theme.. they were there.. a wide range from some which were peg ones or board puzzles to the 20 piece plus ones..we had a lot of 12-15 piece ones which were always in use and many were donations from parents or from boot sales/ charity shops... remembering that many were actually floor puzzles which were used by several children at the same time..

 

and over time we also had some 30 piece ones which may sound a lot but we did find some of the 4yr olds were doing these.. we found from the observations that some needed these, often started with help to complete them but once done were managing them on their own enjoying the redoing of them many many times.

 

then there were the wooden number ones, coloured blocks which fit together, multicultural ones which we had were really hard board puzzles of 20 pieces but the children loved them.. and some which even I found hard to do.. but found some children managed them easily..

 

I know space is an issue.. but we had a box of them which we rotated the contents.. always a variety of all sizes and difficulty, with pictures of others they could have if they asked.. later we managed to have a shelf for them.. our rules were one at a time and once finished tidy up and put it away... unless someone else is still using it.. if they are taught from the start we found they did that.

 

and as puzzles may end up mixed we put something on the back of each piece in one puzzle so we knew at a glance how to separate them.. eg one puzzle had a number 1 in red on the back of each piece, another would be red number 2 another may be green and a number.. so easy to sort them all out.. and children could help do it when they were all mixed up too.

[Susan]

I would consider jigsaws to be part of your fine manipulative provision not construction.

Likewise the other things you mention although there may be some overlap into other areas when you could identify your theme?

[Guest terrydoo73]

Hi it maybe in her opinion that there are too much linked to a theme within your provision.

Do you have any with shapes, floor puzzles, or with more pieces to show a variation, if not perhaps with all the lovely pennies you are going to make at your fete/ funday you could explore getting some.

Charity shops sometimes or boot sales are good for this too.

Just a thought does she saying anything nice about what you are doing to give you more confidence, it always appears from your posts that there's alot of criticism, which inturn can lead to self-doubt.

 

 

We opened in January and had out at that time little 2 piece and 4 piece jigsaws as well as a selection of peg puzzles that had the shapes etc. We don't have the space for floor puzzles but did have out large jigsaws not related to a theme - they were put away again as children just didn't touch them and we felt their confidence was being knocked each time trying to build them. The Development Officer came in to see us at a time when we had felt the children were moving on to do large piece jigsaws and there was no need for the 2 and 4 pieces any longer - ie 6, 9 and 12 pieces were out as well as peg puzzles that just so happened to have yachts, cars, diggers etc.

 

I know what you are saying Bridger - we need more positivity from her and this is where my Deputy says we fell down - we should have just retaliated by explaining to her that we had moved on now to this size and showed her what we had had out earlier on in the year. The next time she comes we will say "well how do you think we should change this area". The thing is we were supposed to have a visit in February and she went off on sick leave so only came back to work at the beginning of this month. The day she came to us was her second week back and she promised to come back another day to look at our continuous provision and see what changes we can make for September - we have yet to hear from her and it is now nearly 3 weeks on! She also had a query on our photos being taken and put in the observation files - she wanted us to rip them out and give them to each child before they leave in June even though half of our children will be back next year!! The alternative she gave us was to have a separate scrap book with the photos in them and a link to our observations from these. We are considering this for September.

[Guest terrydoo73]

Do wonder if from what you describe if there is not enough to give a real challenge to these children and you need more variety both in content as well as difficulty.

 

we never used puzzles to a theme.. they were there.. a wide range from some which were peg ones or board puzzles to the 20 piece plus ones..we had a lot of 12-15 piece ones which were always in use and many were donations from parents or from boot sales/ charity shops... remembering that many were actually floor puzzles which were used by several children at the same time..

 

and over time we also had some 30 piece ones which may sound a lot but we did find some of the 4yr olds were doing these.. we found from the observations that some needed these, often started with help to complete them but once done were managing them on their own enjoying the redoing of them many many times.

 

then there were the wooden number ones, coloured blocks which fit together, multicultural ones which we had were really hard board puzzles of 20 pieces but the children loved them.. and some which even I found hard to do.. but found some children managed them easily..

 

I know space is an issue.. but we had a box of them which we rotated the contents.. always a variety of all sizes and difficulty, with pictures of others they could have if they asked.. later we managed to have a shelf for them.. our rules were one at a time and once finished tidy up and put it away... unless someone else is still using it.. if they are taught from the start we found they did that.

 

and as puzzles may end up mixed we put something on the back of each piece in one puzzle so we knew at a glance how to separate them.. eg one puzzle had a number 1 in red on the back of each piece, another would be red number 2 another may be green and a number.. so easy to sort them all out.. and children could help do it when they were all mixed up too.

 

We only opened in January and are very slowly trying to build up our resources. It just so happened that we had a lot of one particular kind but they were not out on their own. I think she was really hinting at going down the high scope route and emphasising not the theme route. It was just at this time we had children with interest in particular things ie fire engines and police cars so we put them out according to the theme. I think she was of the opinion that we were forcing every child in the playgroup to go along with the one or two childrens interest but it was more a case of children who loved jigsaw puzzles, we could see it met the 3 areas of learning we were focusing on and trying it out with him to satisfy his and ours satisfaction if you understand what I mean!!

[Guest]

sorry this may not be the correct reply but perhaps your dev. officer neeeds to get out more.

 

What a sad crititsim (sorry think i need a dictionary). We do not even have puzzles out on a regular basis, because the children at the minute are really not into puzzles !